Two-Time F1 Champ Mika Häkkinen to Drive Mercedes SLS at Zhuhai ILMC Race

Two-time F1 champion Mika Häkinnen will co-drive a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 at the Zhuhai Six Hours ILMC race.
Two-Time F1 Champ Mika Häkkinen to Drive Mercedes SLS at Zhuhai ILMC Race
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<a><img class="size-medium wp-image-1795486" title="Mika H&#228kkinen will race an SLS AMG GT3 like this one at Zuhai. (Mercedes Benz)" src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/AMGGT3.jpg" alt="Mika H&#228kkinen will race an SLS AMG GT3 like this one at Zuhai. (Mercedes Benz)" width="575"/></a>
Mika Häkkinen will race an SLS AMG GT3 like this one at Zuhai. (Mercedes Benz)

Two-time Formula One World Driver’s Championship winner and German DTM series driver Mika Häkinnen will be ending his four-year retirement to co-drive a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 at the Zhuhai Six Hours, the final round of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup series.

“It’s a great honor for me to be able to contest the first SLS AMG GT3 race in China,” Häkkinen said in a press statement. “Although I’ve visited China many times, I’ve never raced there, which is why I’m really looking forward to Zhuhai.

“It will be a tough race in a competitive field, but I'll do my best for Customer Sports Team AMG. Of course, being a guest driver in such a line-up should be a lot of fun, especially in the SLS AMG GT3. It’s a great customer motorsport vehicle which is both fast and extremely good-looking.”

Häkkinen drove for McLaren Mercedes in Formula One from 1993 until 2001, amassing 20 Grand Prix victories and 26 poles. He won the World Driver’s Championship in 1998 and 1999. The Finnish driver returned to racing in 2005, competing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) series for Mercedes-Benz. He hung up his helmet in 2007.

Häkkinen’s return to racing will introduce the gullwinged Mercedes to China. The car has already been campaigned successfully in various series throughout 2011, winning the FIA GT3 European team title and taking race wins in the German ADAC GT Master Series and VLN Endurance Championship.

No Mercedes Factory Team